Next-gen mobiles to feature at London Symbian Devexpo

At last, they're (nearly) here...

Next generation Symbian OS phones are to feature heavily at next month's Symbian Developer ExpoSymbian Developer Expo in London, as the latest models from Sony-Ericsson and Nokia face-off. Both companies rate their own developer tracks at the show, and Symbian has just celebrated the announcement of Sony-Ericsson's new P800 smartphone by focussing one specifically on the new beast.

So it'll be the Sony-Ericsson P800 versus the Nokia 7650. Neither is actually shipping yet, but at the recent GSM World Congress anybody who was anybody had a 7650 with a two digit identifier on the back. The Register, for the record, is therefore officially nobody, and remains so for the moment.

Both Symbian and the mobile phone networks have a lot riding on this next generation of phone. They're not quite the devices that will catch the imaginations and wallets of the broad range of phone users, but they're a step in that direction. They're an opportunity for Symbian to steal back some of the thunder Microsoft gained with its GSM World announcements, and to demonstrate backing for Symbian phones from the major networks (Orange and Vodafone are actually co-sponsors of Symbian Devexpo, as indeed is Microsoft reference platform partner Texas Instruments, plus our old friends Nokia and Intel). There will also be keynotes from major execs from Sony-Ericsson (CEO Katsumi Ihara), Motorola, and Vodafone. ®